Would UEFA’s Champions League draw mistake have been noticed if it wasn’t for Man United?

Would the mistakes made in UEFA’s initial Champions League draw have been noticed if Andrey Arshavin hadn’t pulled out Manchester United’s name?

UEFA were forced to re-do the Champions League Round of 16 draw yesterday after a “technical problem” occurred, forcing the draw to be “entirely redone” later in the day.

The error was first noticed in the second draw, when Manchester United were chosen to face Villarreal. This should have been impossible, as both teams qualified from the same group.

The Red Devils’ ball was then not correctly included in the draw involving Atletico Madrid straight after, leading to many fans and journalists noticing the issues.

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Had Manchester United’s name not been initially drawn against Villarreal, would the issue have gone unnoticed?

Atletico Madrid did end up contacting UEFA regarding the issue but it’s unclear if they would have noticed the error had the Red Devils not been drawn beforehand.

UEFA have only released limited details on the technical problem and Real Madrid in particular are unhappy with the redraw, with their initial draw being Benfica and their second draw being Paris Saint-Germain, a significantly tougher team.

Inter and Liverpool also have reasons to be unhappy as they’ve been paired together in the second draw. Simone Inzaghi’s side had got Ajax in the first draw, while Liverpool were drawn against FC Salzburg.

Inter vice president Javier Zanetti refused to rub salt into UEFA’s wound, while Simone Inzaghi admitted that “it didn’t go well in the first draw, but the second was certainly worse.”

One of the worst and saddest pages in the history of UEFA has been written with many clubs and fans complaining about the way Europe’s football governing body handled the draw. Italian media highlighted how Inter have been ‘punished’ by the redraw but the worst thing is that, perhaps, the error would have gone unnoticed if Arshavin hadn’t picked Manchester United’s ball.